Dallas Clouatre, PhD

Dallas Clouatre, Ph.D. earned his A.B. from Stanford and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. A Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, he is a prominent industry consultant in the US, Europe, and Asia, and is a sought-after speaker and spokesperson. He is the author of numerous books. Recent publications include "Tocotrienols in Vitamin E: Hype or Science?" and "Vitamin E – Natural vs. Synthetic" in Tocotrienols: Vitamin E Beyond Tocopherols (2008), "Grape Seed Extract" in the Encyclopedia Of Dietary Supplements (2005), "Kava Kava: Examining New Reports of Toxicity" in Toxicology Letters (2004) and Anti-Fat Nutrients (4th edition).

Sometimes lost in the public service messages
regarding what to eat is another important component
in nutrition—how food is cooked. This is the take
home message from a recent article published in
Food Chemistry.1 Moreover, it seems that cooking techniques
and materials can cut both ways, either depleting nutrients
or enhancing them. Studies have shown, for instance, that
using poor quality fats to deep fry fish containing high levels
of omega-3 fatty acids can...

Received wisdom is that breakfast is the most
important meal of the day, an observation that
most clinical studies support. However, there are
doubters. Recently, the New York Times1 ran an
opinion piece by a professor of pediatrics at Indiana
University School of Medicine that stated bluntly in its title,
“Sorry, There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast.” Unluckily
for this professor, new research just published in the Journal
of the American College of...

The nutrients L-carnitine and choline are two of
the most important for heart and liver health.
Large bodies of literature support the benefits of
these compounds and that of related items, such as
phosphatidylcholine. Despite this history, recently news media
articles have appeared suggesting that these nutrients actually
cause heart disease. Similarly, in the medical professional research
literature, there is a groundswell of publications that attempt
to associate L-carnitine and...

For Sports and Health

Most readers who have heard of ketosis and ketogenesis
likely associate the concepts with dieting and the works of Dr.
Robert C. Atkins (Dr. Atkins’ Health Revolution, 1989; Dr. Atkins’
New Diet Revolution, 1992) that launched a bit of a movement
in the 1990s. Much less well known is the role of ketosis in
sports and the importance of being able to enter ketosis as an
aspect of metabolic flexibility, meaning the ability to rapidly...

Athletic training is based on principles such as
physical overload, meaning that the body is taxed to
near its limits and then allowed to recover with the
expectation that recovery will be quicker in the future for the
same level of exertion and that the body will over-compensate
at recovery and thus allow even more exertion upon the next
challenge. This demand-and-response model clearly taxes bodily
reserves. Some supplements, for example, protein, are aimed
mostly at recovery and...

Over the last several months, there has been
considerable debate between growers of medicinal
mushrooms regarding the proper growing, identification
and testing of these health products. As one party has
put it, “Medicinal mushrooms are a category that has
experienced high growth but few actual quality control
standards.” These are not minor issues from the standpoint
of health and efficacy or, for that matter, potentially from
the standpoint of regulatory bodies. The chief...

Depression is an increasingly common issue in the United States. The Centers for
Disease Control in 2010 estimated that 11.1 percent of the American population suffers
from significant depression — a whopping 35 million individuals — and this figure
seems to be steadily rising. Prescribed mood modifiers are everywhere, starting as
early as elementary school and continuing on into old age. How successful are these pharmacologic approaches? Not very. Optimistic estimates maintain that...

Is it time to rethink the prevention and treatment of heart
and circulatory diseases? Almost certainly. One common
assertion regarding cardiovascular diseases is that there have
been improvements as a result of cholesterol lowering drugs,
primarily statins. Oddly, almost none of the trials investigating
statins for primary prevention of heart disease have proven
successful. Reduced rates of smoking have helped, whereas the
widespread use of statins has not. Indeed, the trials...

Every year at about this time most of us resolve
that this year we are going to do things differently.
We are going to lose weight, we are going to get
more exercise, we are going to learn a foreign
language, we are going to…. The aims involved
almost always are desirable and chosen from a
list of things that, no doubt, we really should do.
All too often, these resolutions also are carryovers from the past
year or, worse still, past years. As a result, we may ratchet up
the ante,...

The eyes are especially prone to certain types of oxidative
and related damage with ultra violet and blue light from
the sun being a primary culprit. Age-related macular
degeneration (AMD) is a typical result of the aging process,
as is the formation of cataracts. Prevent Blindness America
estimates that AMD may affect 13 million individuals in this
country. Cataracts impair the vision of roughly 4 million
Americans. Some authorities estimate that thirty percent of
all adults aged 70...

Today, most people know that the omega-3
fatty acids, such as are found in cold-water
fish, are good for us. In fact, these are among
the “stars players” of health supplements.
The omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentanoic
acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
have been widely studied in connection with
cardiovascular, joint, immune and brain health. Numerous
scientific findings have demonstrated that omega-3 fatty
acids are important for a healthy inflammatory response. In
fact,...

Chronic illnesses are a feature of advancing years.
Many theories have been put forth as to why this is
the case and these theories often are in conflict, yet
there is a surprising degree of agreement on at least
one point: the health and longevity of at least 50
percent of the adult population are primarily related to dietary
practices. Often the culprit is referred to as the “Western”
diet and lifestyle pattern, meaning a shift towards increased
consumption of red meat, animal...

Synergy is a concept with which most of us are familiar.
The texts on labels of dietary supplements often proclaim
“synergistic effects”— indeed, so often that synergism
sometimes is described as the most over-used term in the
industry because synergy commonly is claimed where none
exists. More interesting, and arguably far more important, are
nutrient and related interactions that might seem to fall under
the heading of synergy, yet in reality are quite different. One
such...

Americans are not accustomed to considering
the liver as a factor in health and disease. We
fear conditions such as heart disease, obesity
and cancer, but seldom do we link any of these
to derangements in the liver. This is unfortunate
because hepatic functions rule much of the body. The liver is
the largest organ in the body. It is so large, in fact, that it fills
the entire upper right-hand side of the abdominal cavity and
spills over into the left-hand side. The bulk of the liver...

Modern medicine often can perform marvels in
treatment at the hospital, no doubt about it. Likewise,
antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals frequently can
save us from conditions that in a previous century would
have been fatal. Missing, however, as most of us can attest
either from personal experience or from having witnessed
the post-hospital recovery of relatives and friends, are good
options for supporting healing and recovery once medical
treatments are over. “Taking it easy”...

When it comes to sports performance supplements,
there are few ingredients better known than creatine.
Creatine helps to supply energy to cells, particularly
in muscle, by assisting in the formation of the body’s energy
currency, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

But athletes are often unaware that ATP generation requires
creatine to first gain entry to muscle. Creatine floating around in
the blood is useless if not absorbed by muscle tissue. Yet taken
by itself (usually as...

Uridine is a nutrient that is largely unknown as a
dietary supplement and yet, paradoxically, has a well-established
place in nutrition. Indeed, uridine is one
of the reasons that fish is known as “brain food” and brewer’s
yeast is recognized for its health benefits. These and a number
of other foods supply significant amounts of ribonucleic
acid (RNA). Uridine, along with adenosine, guanosine, and
cytidine, is one of the four components that comprise RNA.
When RNA-rich foods...

Cruciferous vegetables (Brassica oleracea
spp.), such as broccoli, are associated with
antioxidant, cellular protection and healthy
cell replication. Studies dating back several
decades initially identified better health with
levels of vegetable consumption and then
narrowed certain types of protection more
specifically to the intake of cruciferous vegetable and the total
intake of glucosinolate, an important component compound.
Further studies on cruciferous compounds...

Attempts to extend normal life and to prolong
maximum lifespan no doubt are as old as
the human race. Many cultures have legends
regarding the achievement of greatly extended
lives, yet even in the realm of legend, techniques
for such accomplishment are generally missing. Nevertheless,
there are plenty historical records attesting that aside from
deaths due to complications of childbirth, childhood diseases,
famine, wars and plagues, a number individuals consuming
diets and...

Few people are surprised when
told that it is relatively hard to lose
weight in the fall heading into winter
and relatively easy to lose weight in
the spring. This is not just a matter
of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New
Year’s and the Super Bowl, although
the grouping of these holidays hardly helps. Our
bodies exhibit metabolic changes in preparation
for the winter months and then tend to reverse
at least some of these changes as the next year
progresses. Hibernation is the classic...

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